Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on August 9, 2021

James Beard Award-winning Chef Michael Solomonov was in Tel Aviv on July 5 to headline the opening of Asif,a nonprofit organization dedicated to cultivating and nurturing Israels diverse food culture.

Established as a joint venture of the New York City-based Jewish Food Society and Tel Avivs Start-Up Nation Central, Asif (Hebrew for harvest) encompasses:

Asif Caf and Deli. Photo by Amir Menachem

View from the gallery of Asif. Photo by Amir Menachem

The rooftop farm on Asif. Photo by Amit Geron

View from Library of Asif. Photo by Amit Geron

Asif is housed in a space at Start-Up Nation Central that formerly hosted the L28 eatery spotlighting emerging Israeli chefs.

Naama Shefi, founder of Jewish Food Society in New York and Asif in Tel Aviv. Photo by Matan Choufan

We will be featuring emerging chefs, not for long periods like L28 did, but for special popup events, founder Naama Shefi tells ISRAEL21c. Also, we will invite chefs from the international scene, to inspire and be inspired by Israeli cuisine.

Planned events include tours, dialogues, storytelling, panels, lectures and classes such as a Flavors From the Library series with winemakers and chefs who helped select books for the library.

In person and online

A workshop in August will explore Syrian cuisine with two talented cooks Safaa, a Druze woman from the Golan Heights, and Sigi, a Jewish woman from Gadera.

Ahead of the workshop, we used our test kitchen to prepare the dishes we will present and talked about the differences and similarities between Syrian-Druze and Jewish-Syrian cuisine, says Shefi.

Did you know, for example, that there is a kosher version of shish barak, the meat-stuffed dumplings that are usually served with a yogurt-based sauce?

Lower level of Asif. Photo by Amit Geron

While visitors from abroad cannot yet take part in live events, theyll be able to access events and find resources yes, including recipes! through the website.

Shefi, the Israeli founder of Jewish Food Society, explains that the name Asif encapsulates our mission. In Hebrew, asif means harvest, but it also denotes a gathering of people, curation and collection. Its not just our name; it stands for whats important to us, she tells ISRAEL21c.

Through its collaboration with Start-Up Nation Central, Asif will explore Israeli technological innovation that changes the way we produce and consume food, she adds.

The centers staff will work closely with the agriculture and food technology communities in Israel and will make solutions accessible to the public.

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Welcome to Israel's brand-new innovative culinary institute - ISRAEL21c

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Posted By admin on August 9, 2021

Inspired by the British Raj and invoking the regal charms and sophistication of the elegant clubs of royal Indian and British high society, The Posh Spice takes Indian dining to an elevated experience. And in todays environment, the refined and stylish colonial Indian restaurant is bringing the spices and flavours of India to your home.

The Posh Spice offers an extensive and exciting menu, ranging from appetising starters and small plates of traditional street snacks, to the freshest of meat and fish cooked expertly in a traditional Indian tandoor.

Indrani Matta, director of the establishment, says the restaurant offers unique dishes that people wouldnt necessarily equate with an Indian restaurant, including many vegetarian options.

There are also plenty of fish and vegetarian dishes on our menu, with options such as tandoori cauliflower, bhaji bites, spiced lentils arancini balls, and a fennel-dusted fish tikka. Most of our dishes are in the mild to medium spice range, with all dishes available to be cooked in spice strengths of mild, medium or hot to suit each diners preference, said Matta.

The restaurant has also recently added delectable dishes such as the coconut salmon curry and the Durban lamb samosa to the menu, both of which have been big hits with the local community.

Also on the menu are many meat-free choices that still boast the flavours of traditional meat dishes. Listening to the local community, Matta has added several plant-based starters, share plates and mains for those who prefer to keep their diet strictly vegetarian. The no-bird butter chicken is made using a plant-based chicken substitute with the same cream tomato flavoured sauce as its chicken-based counterpart.

According to Matta, the restaurants butter chicken is considered by many loyal customers as one of the best in Sydney. So now everyone can experience the dish, regardless of their meat-status. Theres also meatless lamb rogan josh and masala spiced mushrooms. Of course, there are the traditional vegetarian options of potato saag, aloo gohbi and lentil dal.

Like the rest of the hospitality industry, The Posh Spice has widened its home offering. The Hot Food Ready Curry Bar is a new addition to keep meals quick and contact-free with lunch and dinner options available.

Matta has also introduced parcel boxes.The Indian Parcel Box for two, which Matta says its like receiving a parcel of Indian delicacies in the post, includes a snack pack, two curries, rice, naan and a side, plus a surprise dessert.

Following the success of the initial parcel box, Matta has added celebration dinner boxes, including a birthday parcel box, anniversary parcel box or a gift-it parcel box.

Each option comes with its own special touch, such as a birthday cupcake and candle, or a candle and chocolate heart for an anniversary or a thank you balloon. The boxes, which are all priced at $90, come with plenty of food from starters to dessert, and are meant to be shared between two, but additional serves can be added for an extra cost.

The Posh Spice is a neighbourhood restaurant with authentic Indian food showcasing the diversity and depth of Indian culture and cuisine. The menu, taking inspiration from some of the worlds leading Indian restaurants, is extensive and delicious, with each dish offering something special and unique.

The biggest problem youll have is figuring out what to order or include in your parcel box.

The Posh Spice is at 4/687-704 Old South Head Road, Vaucluse and is open seven days a week. For more information or to order a parcel box, call (02) 9337 3217 or visit theposhspice.com.au.

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Posted By admin on August 9, 2021

Lisa Goldberg still experiences regret when she thinks about recipes from her aunt she wasnt able to record. My aunt was the best cook [but] I only got a handful of recipes from her, she says.

Goldberg, the Sydney-based founding member of the Monday Morning Cooking Club, a not-for-profit dedicated to curating and documenting recipes from Jewish kitchens across Australia and the world, doesnt want her children to have the same recipe regret: the particular kind of sadness you feel when youve lost your chance to record a recipe and cant get it back.

If some of your family recipes remain unwritten or are scribbled on scraps of paper, here are some ways to record, revive and preserve them to avoid recipe regret for yourself, and future generations.

Before recording your family recipes, write a list of the people whose recipes youd like to document and the specific dishes youd like to capture.

Next, schedule a regular time to capture those recipes, either in person or via video call. This is how writer and author Jaclyn Crupi recorded her Nonnas recipes, which she featured in the book Nonna Knows Best.

I would go around to my Nonnas house every Sunday and I would cook with her, says Crupi. She wrote her Nonnas recipes down and drew pictures to capture the details of techniques like kneading.

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For the Australian-Indonesian-Chinese chef and food writer Lara Lee, the discovery of her deceased grandmothers handwritten recipe books in Indonesia inspired her first cookbook, Coconut and Sambal. To write it, she spent a total of six months in Indonesia. Lee learned to cook her grandmothers recipes not only from her cookbooks, but together with help from her aunties and great-aunties. They would go through her grandmothers recipe books and Lee would select a recipe she wanted to learn.

Theyd look at what she had written, and they would tell me how they had learned it, says Lee.

You have to perfect a recipe by making it on your own. When testing recipes, Goldberg warns against relying on someones handwritten notes alone. She recounts the story of a recipe shed been sent. After several attempts at making it, it just wouldnt work. When she showed the person what theyd written, they were able to clarify things. I didnt mean a cup of flour. No, I meant half a cup of almond milk.

If you cant go back to the person who taught you the recipe, then Goldberg recommends consulting a cook or chef. If there was a recipe she couldnt recreate, say a pastry for example, Goldberg says she would ask an expert. Id go to the guy who owns Marta a beautiful Italian bakery. Id go see him, Id tell him the problem and say Can you help me? Revisiting the recipe with someone else will help you recover missed steps until you get it right.

If your family recipes are lost, they may not be gone for good. Crupi suggests reviving lost recipes through cookbooks or even a cooking class. By reading about, tasting and making the cuisine from your heritage, you can reawaken the recipes in your memory.

Another way is noting down everything you can remember about the dish. Think about the flavours, smells or tastes, details like what the dish looked like and what it was called. Even if you dont have surviving family, with this information you can search online, or reach out to people through Facebook groups who may help you identify the dish.

Immersing yourself in the food of your culture can also reconnect you to your past.

Goldberg remembers her sister-in-laws mother, Elizabeth. She used to make these amazing poppy seed strudels and walnuts strudels really exceptional and unique, says Goldberg.

Thank you for your feedback.

Goldberg recorded the recipe with Elizabeth when she was still alive, also learning the story behind it. Elizabeth told Goldberg how she had survived the Holocaust and that her parents had been killed in the camps. When she came to Australia in the 1950s, it was with nothing. No money, no clothes no recipes, says Goldberg.

One afternoon in Sydney at a friends house, Elizabeth was served a strudel that reminded her of her mothers. She hadnt had it for years and thought it was lost. Through that chance tasting she was given the recipe, and from that she was able to recreate her mothers version.

Heirloom cookbooks are cookbooks with time-honoured family recipes that have been passed down across generations. If your family is lucky enough to have one, but fear damaging or losing your only copy, Alice Cannon, a paper conservator and the president of the Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material (AICCM), suggests taking photographs of each page.

If the original needs repair, then you could locate a private practice conservator through the AICCMs searchable database. When it comes to storage, Cannon recommends using a snug box away from light and dust.

Cannon suggests using a print-on-demand photobook service (there are several available online to make a new kitchen copy. Cooking with a family recipe regularly will preserve the heirloom, and the memories.

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Avoiding recipe regret: how to record and revive your family recipes - The Guardian

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Posted By admin on August 9, 2021

Tracy Michael figures she's made around 5,000 batches of hummus with her grandmother, who she called "Sitti."

Growing up in Prince Edward Island's vibrant Lebanese community, the dish was a staple, and the ritual of making it is one of her earliest memories, said Michael, a registered dietitian who also teaches cooking classes.

"I would help when I was just a little toddler. We'd come into the kitchen and help her. And I remember putting the chickpeas in the blender and pressing it on," she told Unforked host Samira Mohyeddin.

It's a tradition thatstretches back 120 yearsto a time when Michael's great-grandfather, Thomas Michael Adado, one of the earliest and best known Lebanese settlers on P.E.I., worked as a peddler selling things like soap, dry goods and other household items.

Tracy said herfamily believes when Thomas showed up at the immigration office, his last name was dropped because officials just couldn't figure it out. His middle name, Michael, after his father, became the family name going forward.

Thomas supported his wife, Annie, and their nine children, walking the whole island to sell his wares. It was a way that he and other Lebanese people could get a foothold in a new world.

"He was really well known for what he did, to the point that actually one of his peddling routes was to Lucy [Maud] Montgomery's house," said Michael, who lives in Charlottetown. "And it's been said that he is the inspiration for the peddler that sold Anne the green hair dye in Anne of Green Gables. So that's, like, our family claim to fame. I don't know if it's true or not, but we like to think it is."

From there, the Michael family opened up a grocery store, which meant they could import ingredients like tahini, chickpeas and lentils that weren't stocked in most maritime shops at the time, as well as za'atar and other spices they needed to make traditional Lebanese foods.

Their family, as well as other Lebanese settlers, later opened restaurants.

That path to prosperity and integration within the broader P.E.I. community was a common one, said David Weale, an island folk historian and author of the book A Stream Out of Lebanon.

"For the most part, the Lebanese on Prince Edward Island were identified either as peddlers [or] they were corner store operators," said Weale, a former history professor at the University of Prince Edward Island.

These were the most viable opportunities for those newly arrived from what was then part of Syria, before Lebanon became a separate state around 1920.

The first Lebanese people came to Atlantic Canada around 1880 because of persecution in their homeland, said Weale, and to Prince Edward Island about three or four years later. As local lore has it, a Lebanese peddler in Nova Scotia saw P.E.I. across the water and asked whether people lived there.

After learning that they did, he said, "'I must go over there.' And he did. And that was the beginning of the Lebanese emigration into P.E.I.,"Wealeexplained.

Providing goods to relatively isolated country residents made the Lebanese peddlers valuable to their clientele even though they didn't really understand where these mysterious salesmen came from, he said.

In addition to the island's original inhabitants, the Mi'kmaq, who had been there for 10,000 years, said Weale, the other residents were almost exclusively descendants of early British and French colonizers.

"When you live in a society where almost everybody is, you know, English speaking from the British Isles, these people were quite a novelty."

Many rural people assumed the peddlers were Jewish,Weale said, because all they knew of people who appeared Middle Eastern was that Jewish people lived in that part of the world.

Although they were Christian, just like their customers, Weale's interviews with former peddlers found that some didn't bother to correct that mistake, opting tojust getthe job done. "One man said when he would come down the lane towards the house and the kids would meet him he'd say, 'Go tell your mother that the Jew is here.'"

When these Lebanese Canadians and their children and grandchildren had earned enough to buy property for corner stores and around the middle of the 20th century to open restaurants, Lebanese food was "one of the first kinds of exotic foreign cuisines that islanders would have encountered," said Weale.

"Everybody on P.E.I. now eats hummus, but 60 years ago, they would not have known what a chickpea was. They have certainly transformed the eating, the menu on P.E.I. to a large extent larger than any other group."

That shift has been significant even in Tracy Michael's lifetime.

"Growing up in P.EI. in the '80s and '90s, there wasn't a lot of diversity in my school. My sister and I were definitely the odd ones out," she said. "Most of my peers came to school with Dunkaroos and Lunchables and you know, sandwiches, and all those really like 'normal' things at the time what I thought was normal."

"Then I would come to school with this garlicky hummus that I would open up. And it was the thing that I got teased for the most, the food that I brought to school."

Since then, Lebanese cuisine has gone "pretty mainstream," saidFadi Rashed, president of the Canadian Lebanese Association of Prince Edward Island.

"In opening those businesses and starting to introduce that food over time, yeah, everybody knows what hummus is; everybody knows what a shawarma is," he said.

Although Prince Edward Islanders of Lebanese descent have since had success in all manner of professions including two premiers in their numbers entrepreneurial ways with food were long the cornerstone of that success.

When civil war broke out in Lebanon in 1975, Rashed's parents fled to Cyprus and then to Canada with infant Rashed in tow.

"He didn't speak English, my dad, he just started cooking at the Seatreat restaurant, which was a popular restaurant at the time," said Rashed. Eventually his parents bought a building, started a corner store, and then "a little grill" the foundation of two successful locations of Sam's Family Restaurant that Rashed runs today.

As a dietitian, food remains at the core of the work Tracy Michael does, and her long-lasting connection to her culture, she said,having lost touch with parts of her heritage, including the language and music.

"When I think about it, what really stands now, generations later, is the food. That's the only tie that I really have to my Lebanese culture, and that has been so strongly passed down. And I'm so grateful to be able to pass that along now to my two sons."

Written by Brandie Weikle. Tracy Michaelinterview produced by Erin Noel.

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Today there's hummus in every grocery store. But it was once considered P.E.I.'s 1st 'exotic' cuisine - CBC.ca

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Posted By admin on August 9, 2021

The Equalizer9pm, Sky Witness

This reboot of the 80s crime-fighting classic sees Queen Latifah bringing some righteous swagger to the part of Robyn McCall, a mysterious former CIA operative gone rogue but using her powers for good. From one perspective, McCall is a single mother, raising her daughter. But she is also a modern-day Robin Hood; a guardian angel of the exploited, powerless and downtrodden. In this opening episode, she intervenes explosively on behalf of Jewel, a teenager accused of murder and on the run from an organised crime gang. Phil Harrison

Sabrina Grant is out to investigate why constipation costs the NHS more than 150m a year. Now theres a premise. Six volunteers become gut guinea pigs, testing different approaches to improve their health, from a bone broth diet to an intense Ayurvedic detox. Hannah Verdier

The five remaining chefs and their pet celebrities are taking on French cuisine this week, considered by many to be the epitome of fine dining. The dishes include such classics as duck lorange and coq au vin and, in execution, range from magnifique to merde. But what are they doing with that fish? Ellen E Jones

A non-accidental holiday for Richard E Grant, this literary tour begins in Naples and Grant is an engaging guide to the crumbling grandeur of the city immortalised in Elena Ferrantes Neapolitan novels. Then, its off to the Amalfi coast, following in the footsteps of Patricia Highsmith. PH

The patchy Wall Street comedy returns, and after the formative chaos of the 80s its time to move on. Mo (Don Cheadle) is now a jazz producer looking to escape the blizzard of powdery excess his life had become. Meanwhile, Blair (Andrew Rannells) is learning that politics isnt any less brutal than trading. PH

A Billy Elliot-style story of redemption through dance as Tom Oakley auditions for the Rambert school, while managing cystic fibrosis. Throw in a touch of homesickness (Tom left his family in Liverpool) and, of course, a pandemic, and you have a recipe for well-tugged heartstrings. PH

Ida (Pawe Pawlikowski, 2013), 2.10am, Film4In early-60s Poland, novice nun Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska) is told by her sole surviving relative, boozy magistrate Aunt Wanda (Agata Kulesza), that she is Jewish and her real name is Ida. The pair set off to find out what became of her parents, in a beautiful, bitter journey into a familys hidden past and a nations dark history. Paul Howlett

Olympics 2020 9am, BBC One. Artistic gymnastics, boxing and track cycling finals from Tokyo.

The Hundred cricket: London Spirit v Northern Superchargers 2.30pm, Sky Sports Main Event. Coverage of the womens match from Lords.

T20 cricket: West Indies v Pakistan 3.45pm, BT Sport 1. Action from Guyana.

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TV tonight: Queen Latifah returns as a modern-day Robin Hood in The Equalizer - The Guardian

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Meanwhile, YouTube touts its transparency efforts, saying in 2019 that it launched over 30 different changes to reduce recommendations of borderline content and harmful misinformation, which resulted in a 70 percent average drop in watch time of this content coming from nonsubscribed recommendations in the United States. However, without any way to verify these statistics, users have no real transparency.

Just as polluters green-wash their products by bedecking their packaging with green imagery, major tech platforms are opting for style, not substance.

Platforms like Facebook, YouTube and TikTok have good reasons to withhold more complete forms of transparency. More and more internet platforms are relying on A.I. systems to recommend and curate content. And its clear that these systems can have negative consequences, like misinforming voters, radicalizing the vulnerable and polarizing large portions of the country. Mozillas YouTube research proves this. And were not alone: The Anti-Defamation League, The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have come to similar conclusions.

The dark side of A.I. systems may be harmful to users, but those systems are a gold mine for platforms. Rabbit holes and outrageous content keep users watching, and thus consuming advertising. By allowing researchers and lawmakers to poke around in the systems, these companies are starting down the path toward regulations and public pressure for more trustworthy but potentially less lucrative A.I. The platforms are also opening themselves up to fierce criticism; the problem most likely goes deeper than we know. After all, the investigations so far have been based on limited data sets.

As tech companies master fake transparency, regulators and civil society at large must not fall for it. We need to call out style masquerading as substance. And then we need to go one step further. We need to outline what real transparency looks like, and demand it.

What does real transparency look like? First, it should apply to parts of the internet ecosystem that most affect consumers, like A.I.-powered ads and recommendations. In the case of political advertising, platforms should meet researchers baseline requests by introducing databases with all relevant information that are easy to search and navigate. In the case of recommendation algorithms, platforms should share crucial data like which videos are being recommended and why, and also build recommendation simulation tools for researchers.

Transparency must also be designed to benefit everyday users, not just researchers. People should be able to easily identify why specific content is being recommended to them or who paid for that political ad in their feed.

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Opinion | TikTok, YouTube and Facebook Want to Appear Trustworthy. Dont Be Fooled. - The New York Times

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Posted By admin on August 9, 2021

A Deerfield state representative posts a public service announcement on social media, encouraging people to loot and burn the homes of Black Lives Matter supporters.

A Farmington man puts up signs on his property condemning Blacks, immigrants, gay marriage and Massachusetts residents.

A man hands out anti-Semitic pamphlets in a parking lot at the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua.

And in New London, a man drives his red pickup truck around town with a life-sized fake skeleton attached to the front bumper and this message: BLM are terrorists. This one was too slow.

These are some of the potential hate crimes reported to the Civil Rights Unit at the Attorney Generals Office in the past year.

Hate is here, said Sean Locke, an assistant attorney general and the director of the 4-year-old unit. It is present, and we have a duty to speak out against it and fight against it.

The Civil Rights Unit received 44 complaints in 2018. That nearly doubled in 2019, to 81, then nearly doubled again in 2020 to 155.

The unit has gotten 89 complaints so far this year.

Complaints come from members of the public, law enforcement agencies and other organizations. While not every complaint leads to an investigation, they all are reviewed for potential violation of either the state law against discrimination (RSA 354-A) or the Civil Rights Act (RSA 354-B), Locke said.

Most complaints have not led to civil or criminal charges. In many cases, the First Amendment protections on free speech trump the harm that hate speech can inflict.

The Union Leader recently reviewed case files of alleged violations of the Civil Rights Act, obtained through a Right-to-Know request submitted to the Attorney Generals Office.

The files included complaints against lawmakers, neighbors, co-workers, strangers, even an editorial published in the New Hampshire Union Leader.

A New London man agreed to remove this fake skeleton and anti-BLM placard from his truck after speaking with an investigator from the Attorney Generals Office.

The burden of proof

The state Civil Rights Act reads: All persons have the right to engage in lawful activities and to exercise and enjoy the rights secured by the United States and New Hampshire Constitutions and the laws of the United States and New Hampshire without being subject to actual or threatened physical force or violence against them or any other person or by actual or threatened damage to or trespass on property when such actual or threatened conduct is motivated by race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, or disability.

To bring a successful case under the Civil Rights Act, Locke said, the state has to prove motive, which is usually not required in a criminal case.

Thats one of the bigger challenges that we face, because not everyone who commits a hate-motivated act is announcing why theyre doing something, Locke said.

Its not enough to say the person who is the victim or the target of the statement or the act felt as if it was hate-motivated, he said. You need the evidence to prove the defendant had that intention.

Prosecutors also have to prove the existence of a direct threat, Locke said. And thats not always present in a lot of these statements, where people might be upset about them, and might feel threatened by them, but we have to show that the speaker intended to threaten the person.

In 2019, Marc Bernier of Nashua was found guilty of violating the Civil Rights Act for repeatedly threatening to kill a patron at a Planet Fitness in Nashua after he learned the individual was transgender and had used the womens locker room to change, according to a statement from the AGs office.

Bernier, 60, was barred from contacting or approaching the victim and from entering the Planet Fitness location for a year. He also was fined $3,000, with all but $500 suspended for a year if he complied with the injunction.

There is a distinction between a hate crime and a hate incident, such as an offensive sign or a racial slur, Locke said. The hate is there, the hate is expressed, but its not something that would rise to the level a prosecutor could bring a criminal charge over, he said.

Among the other recent cases reviewed by the Civil Rights Unit:

A dispute between neighbors in Manchester that led to racial slurs.

The removal of a gay pride flag from a gazebo in Plymouth.

A report from a woman in North Hampton with a Black Lives Matter slogan that someone scrawled beneath it: because we need slaves.

Hate vs. free speech

The Civil Rights Unit has received a lot of complaints about the derogatory Farmington signs.

Locke has sent the same reply to everyone who filed a complaint, explaining that the First Amendment prevents the Attorney Generals Office, the town or any other government authority from ordering the landowner to remove the signs.

The state and federal constitutions, he wrote, provide broad protection for speech, including offensive speech and even hateful speech.

Its something he has to explain often.

State Rep. James Spillane of Deerfield was the subject of complaints to the Attorney Generals Office over this social media post last year. He took it down, telling investigators that he intended it to be tongue-in-cheek.

The incident that triggered the most complaints last year was a social media post by state Rep. James Spillane, R-Deerfield.

Public Service Announcement: If you see a BLM sign on a lawn its the same as having the porch light on for Halloween. Youre free to loot and burn that house, he wrote on Facebook.

According to case files, Spillane told investigators from the AGs office that the post was meant tongue in cheek.

Thats not how nearly 100 state residents who called for his resignation took it.

I am shaking as I write this, one person wrote in an email. I live in Rep. James Spillanes district, I am the mother of bi-racial children and grandchildren and I do not feel safe in my community. It is exactly this type of racist baiting that led to a kid showing up in Kenosha, Wisconsin and shooting innocent, unarmed people exercising their constitutional right to protest.

Spillane was summoned to a Sept. 11 interview at the Attorney Generals Office. In an email to Associate Attorney General James Boffetti after that meeting, Spillane said he had no intent whatsoever for this post to be taken seriously or cause or incite any harm to anyone.

Spillane told investigators he had submitted a statement about the incident to Republican leadership, but he said they advised not to release anything anywhere.

His unpublished statement read:

My post was intended to be tongue-in-cheek and show in the Aristotle method of Reductio ad Absurdum debate that the rioting and looting of businesses was tragic and thoughtless, and harmed individuals not corporations. As soon as I realized it didnt read as I intended it to read, I removed the post. I apologize that the wording of my post had an opposite effect than I intended, and caused some people concern or distress.

In an Oct. 9, 2020 letter, Locke told Spillane that investigators could not meet its burden to prove that he had meant the Facebook post to be a threat intended to interfere with the rights or lawful activities of its targets.

At this time, the Civil Rights Unit is suspending its investigation into your Facebook post. Should facts and circumstances change, however, the Civil Rights Unit will review new information and take whatever steps are appropriate, Locke wrote.

Spillane got in trouble again in January after another social media post generated outrage, this time a cartoon he posted on Parler that people complained was anti-Semitic. In a Jan. 29 letter to House Speaker Sherman Packard, Locke wrote that the Civil Rights Unit again could not meet its burden of proof to show that the post constituted a threat.

Spillane did not respond to several messages left last week.

A case on the Seacoast

Locke said his office works with law enforcement agencies and county attorneys to investigate cases and determine whether to proceed with civil, criminal or parallel tracks.

State law RSA 651-6, I(f) authorizes prosecutors to seek enhanced criminal penalties if a person was substantially motivated to commit the crime because of hostility towards the victims religion, race, creed, sexual orientation, national origin, sex, or gender identity.

Thats what Rockingham County prosecutors are seeking in a criminal case against John Doran of Seabrook.

The state filed both civil and criminal cases against Doran for allegedly shouting racial slurs and threatening a Black man from Washington, D.C., who stopped at a Seabrook gas station in July of 2020 after visiting Hampton Beach with his family.

Doran was indicted for criminal threatening with a deadly weapon, criminal threatening and simple assault.

Get back (n-word) or Ill f---ing burn you go back to Africa, Doran shouted, according to court records. The indictments allege Dorans actions were substantially motivated by (the victims) race.

In court documents, his lawyer contends that Doran was the victim, that the other driver spit at him and that the spitting was racially motivated. Doran displayed the gas nozzle after he was physically attacked and reasonably feared for his safety and well-being, the attorney wrote.

In the civil action, Rockingham County Superior Court in March found that Doran violated the Civil Rights Act. The court imposed a $5,000 civil penalty and barred him from contacting or approaching the victim or his family, under penalty of additional fines or incarceration.

The criminal case against Doran is pending.

Even if an incident doesnt rise to legal action, Locke said its critical for people to report such incidents. There may be things we can do to help protect the person, he said.

If local police are made aware of a bias incident, they might be able to prevent a future hate crime, he said.

The antidote to hate

Peggy Shukur, New England deputy regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said even if something is not charged as a hate crime, these are not victimless incidents.

Take the New London truck with the skeleton, for instance.

We want to think that we can be tolerant of other peoples opinions even if we dont agree with them, she said. But the message this person is sending is if I dont agree with you, you dont deserve to live.

Two years ago, the Attorney Generals Office released protocols for police agencies to handle hate crimes, bias incidents and civil rights violations. The Civil Rights Unit also is developing training for police officers to investigate such incidents, Locke said.

But having a Civil Rights Unit is not a panacea, he said.

There are obviously other steps beyond just bringing Civil Rights Act violations or hate crime charges that need to be taken to address hate in our communities, and to support those who are the targets of hate, Locke said. We pursue these complaints when we receive them, but its not going to prevent all the hate incidents that happen out there in the world.

Were not going to cure hate, he said.

The ADLs Shukur said the antidote to hate lies in the communitys response: good people who gather and speak up and speak out against it.

The community can gather and say we actually take this seriously and we want to make our community be a place where the majority of us are going to speak up and speak out when we see this kind of hate, because it brings us all down, she said.

Theres a lot of strength and comfort in knowing that the majority of your community is going to step up and speak out when you, as a member of a marginalized community, might be the target of something hateful.

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Granite Hate: Complaints are on the rise across the state - The Union Leader

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Posted By admin on August 9, 2021

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid startled the Conference Against Antisemitism in Jerusalem last month by redefining the term: The anti-Semites werent only in the Budapest ghetto, he said. They were also the slave traders, the Hutus who committed genocide in Rwanda, those Muslims who have killed more than 20 million fellow Muslims in the past decade, and those who beat young LGBT people to death.

It was, Mr. Lapid explained, a political appeal. We need allies, he said. Anti-Semitism is racism, so lets talk to all those who oppose racism. ... Anti-Semitism is hatred of outsiders, so lets recruit anyone who was ever an outsider and tell themthis is your fight too.

Five days later, Ben & Jerrys, a division of Unilever and a self-styled champion of progressive values, demonstrated Mr. Lapids naivet by announcing that it will pull out of Israel because selling its ice cream in the Occupied Palestinian Territorythe loaded Arab termwas inconsistent with our values. The Arab League had launched the original pan-Arab boycott of Israel in 1945, defining any Jewish presence in Palestine as an occupation of Arab territory. That boycott would have done far greater damage had the U.S. not intervened to thwart it, which it did because Israels destruction was inconsistent with American values.

But America has changed. At the end of the 20th century, a home-grown boycott, divestment and sanctions movement became an American arm of the war against Israel, uniting a self-defined progressive coalition on the side of Arab-Muslim rejectionism. Anuradha Mittal, Ben & Jerrys chairman and a supporter of BDS, is the initiator of todays boycott of Israel, a country whose creation she once called a catastrophe. She knows that blaming Israel undermines its legitimacy, causing not only economic but political and diplomatic harm.

Why, of all the gin joints in the world, did she have to walk in here? Mr. Lapid might have asked why an American ice-cream company launched an unprovoked attack against the most progressive country in the Middle East.

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Anti-Semitism Isnt Merely Another Kind of Hate - The Wall Street Journal

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Posted By admin on August 9, 2021

Join us for this special 4-part interactive online course taught by Israeli researcher, author and teacher Dr. Gustavo Perednik.

In his own words, he wants to help us better understand Israel and to value its importance for Western Civilization and the world at large to not only provide information to anyone interested in the subject but give tools to every supporter of Israel who wants to expound the Zionist cause. Such a task, for us Zionists, is a way to improve the world. Since Jews in the Diaspora do not have the commitment to Israel that they had in the past, Christian Zionism can play an essential role in the defense of the Jewish state, namely the defense of freedom.

Dr. Gustavo Perednik has fascinating insights into Christian approaches to Israel. He claims: A Christian should be a Zionist, becauseChristianity loses its identity when it neglects Jewish history, including the return of the Jews to Zion.

The course presents the role of Christian personalities and groups in the inception and fulfillment of Zionism and the Jewish State, tracing its roots within the framework of Zionist history. The course deals with the metamorphosis of the image of the Jew in Christian texts since Henry Finch, the influence of the King James Version, Restorationism, Oliphants work in Eretz Yisrael, the presence of Christian Zionism in literature, the Balfour Declaration, and the main Christian contributions to the establishment and consolidation of Israel (see full syllabus below).

Course Schedule:

Lesson 1: Sunday, September 5, 20:00 Jerusalem Time

Lesson 2: Sunday, September 12, 20:00 Jerusalem Time

Lesson 3: Sunday, September 19, 20:00 Jerusalem Time

Lesson 4: Sunday, October 3, 20:00 Jerusalem Time

Join Dr. Gustavo Perednik and take a journey with the fascinating people, beliefs, history and global impact behind Christian Zionism and its key role in the rebirth of the Jewish Nation of Israel.

Watch this brief preview to Introduction to Christian Zionism

Dr. Gustavo Perednik has lectured in fifty countries around the world and published 20 books. He headed the Four-Year Program at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he was distinguished as Outstanding Lecturer. He currently lectures on the History of Zionism and Philosophy on which he also concluded doctoral studies in New York, complemented at the Sorbonne of Paris, Uppsala of Sweden, and San Marcos of Peru. He lives with his family in Jerusalem.

Join us. The most exciting chapter has yet to be written and may occur in our day!

Instructor: Dr. Gustavo D. Perednik

Description: The course presents the role of Christian groups and personalitiesin the inception and fullfilment of Zionism, tracing their contributions from its early roots.

Syllabus

Lesson 1: THE ROOTS OF CHRISTIAN ZIONISM

Lesson 2: THE FIRST PRACTICAL STEPS

Lesson 3: THE POLITICAL STAGE

Lesson 4: THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Classics, 20th century

21st century

Additional

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Introduction to Christian Zionism: Its Roots and Fruits - Israel Today

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Posted By admin on August 9, 2021

We all agree that antisemitism is bad. People are less likely to be seduced by this hate because we all know where it leads.

But anti-Zionism is not perceived to be in the same category. It is sold as speaking truth to power, masked as justice.

The antisemitism we all acknowledge as bad started out looking nothing like where it led. In fact, in comparing the beginnings of antisemitism with anti-Zionism the similarities are striking. In the secular 19th century, Jews were designated as Semites, yet it was never intended to mean anything but Jew.

In the Soviet Union, which claimed to not notice differences in people or religion, Jews were designated as Zionists, and today the designation of Zionism in the West is described as having immutable loathsome qualities. To Christian Europe, we were Christ-killers. To the Nazis, we were an impure race. To the Soviets, we were capitalists. And today, when the greatest sins of the world are racism and colonialism, the Jewish collective is defined as the ultimate bastion of white supremacy, and Israel is seen as a state born in sin.

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It is only by appealing to the religious doctrine that all Jews of the 12th century could be referred to as the killers of Jesus, 1,000 years after his death. It is only by appealing to the authority of perverted science, that Jews could be accused of endangering its racial purity. It is only by appealing to a distorted version of human rights that Israel and Zionism, a Jewish liberation movement, could be considered its greatest violators. It is only by appealing to this distortion that the same people who continually agreed to partitioning the land into a Jewish state and a Palestinian state, could be the ones standing in the way of a two-state solution.

Why go to all these lengths to single out a group and distort reality?

Because humans have a primal need for scapegoats, and for some reason my people have been the designated choice for so many and for so long. For medieval Christianity, we stood between a brutish world and salvation. For Germany and Europe, we stood between them and glory. For Stalin, we stood between him and a communist utopia.

So, why bother fighting colonialism and its aftermath?

But, the problem with human scapegoats is that unlike ancient animal ones, humans might resist, and one cannot have that. So, action must be taken to reduce this resistance: Strip them of their defenses, push them to the margins, and use the modus operandi of cancel culture to suffocate the voice of the Jew from their own conversation, but do it all gradually and never use the word Jew.

Antisemitism, just like anti-Zionism, also lured Jews into dropping their defenses and identity by telling them they would be accepted. In Germany, Jews were told if you are the good kind of Jew who fought for Germany in World War I, you would be spared. They werent.

Jews today feel increasingly unwelcome in their traditional home of liberal politics and progressive ideology, something we have been at the forefront of change in, not just for our own community but for others, Harvey Milk and gay rights, Bella Abzug, Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem in leading second wave feminism, and Rabbi Joachim Prinz and the civil rights movement.

Antisemitism didnt start by stripping Jews of their rights, confiscating their citizenship and pushing them into ghettos. It started by pushing Jews out of the spaces they were able to attain in the greatest authority of that time.

WE NEED to talk about the ongoing and desperate attempts of the non-Jewish world to divorce Zionism from Judaism and try to water down our peoplehood to strictly a religion. We must talk about the continuous lies targeted at Zionists that are rooted in the same antisemitic tropes used to murder and expel our people.

This is all part of an intentional effort from the outside to divide our community within. In letting that happen, we are allowing the continued and endless cycle of anti-Jewish hate to spread once more, we must break our own cycle as well of desperately seeking to assimilate and gain acceptance from the non-Jewish world. Israel is the heart and soul of the Jewish people, it has been for millennia, and will be for an eternity.

The job of fighting antisemitism is irrelevant if only viewed through a lens of hindsight. The real work is understanding the way antisemitism functions in society to notice this shape-shifting world view, whatever it may call itself and how it positions the Jewish collective into whatever that given society hates or fears most

Tragic hindsight is not a lens to understand anti-Jewish hate, it is the lens to remember and commemorate. But, to truly prevent tragedy, we have to notice, acknowledge and fight the unfolding rhetoric that allows Jewish hate to be normalized in society. What happened is simply irrelevant if there is an unwillingness to engage in how it happened. Only once people understand the hows of antisemitism, can never again be a slogan of reality.

The writer is a political journalist and Jewish and Israel rights activist based in Tel Aviv. He studied antisemitism and the Holocaust and aims to redefine the way in which the non-Jewish world interacts with Zionism.

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Understanding the hows of antisemitism - The Jerusalem Post

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